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Publishing your own ezine is critical to establishing a long term and successful Internet presence for you and your business.

Your own ezine will allow you to build customer loyalty and your public image to your target audience.

Following are five tips to help you publish a successful ezine.

(1) Write the content yourself.

Publishing an article from an outside source every once in a while is fine.

Just keep in mind you want to attract business to you and establish yourself as the source not someone else.

(2) Don’t over advertise to your list

Publishing advertisements about products and services to your list is fine.

In order to keep your subscriber’s you should only do it sparingly.

You can add a little blurb at the top (or bottom) of your ezine about your products/services and that will work wonders for promoting your business and keeping subscribers happy.

You can also add a little blurb just after the article about yourself and a little tag for your product/service.

Placing it right after the article will give reader’s no chance to get distracted and they will see it.

(3) Keep solo mailings down to 1-2 per month

By keeping your solo ads, which is an ad that goes out to your list unscheduled you will keep more subscribers.

1 or 2 per month is what works for me. However I’ve also waited 5 months before I mailed a solo ad to one of my lists.

Keep your newsletter intact and add the solo ad to it. Your mast head and other ezine designs shouldn’t change. This way your reader’s will not think it’s spam.

(4) Offer extreme value or Over Deliver

Each issue should offer value to your readers. The content should give value and not the advertisements.

If reader’s like your content and view it as valuable the odds of them coming to you and buying is increased.

As an ezine owner mixing value driven content with value driven advertising is a tight rope walk.

Careful attention needs to be taken when developing your ads and content to retain as many reader’s as possible.

(5) Understand people will unsubscribe

I have a friend who started an ezine and after his first mailing he lost 5% of his subscribers.

He called me on the phone and complained that his article must have driven off these people. Well truth be told maybe that was the case, but people sometimes subscribe to an ezine, find they don’t like it, unsubscribe and that’s that.

Nothing personal that’s just the way it is. Once you understand that you will lose subscribers with every mailing the stress will be reduced.

Operating an ezine isn’t easy. There will be work involved and careful planning is crucial to long term success.

However if you:

Think before you publish

Direct each issue towards giving your readers what they want

and write value driven content for your ezine

You will find it much easier to create a successful publication.

About the Author
Jason Mann is a profitability consultant who works with small Internet businesses to increase profits using unique and powerful strategies. For more infortmative business articles visit:
http://www.majorprofitmargins.info

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Remember that when you have new visitors at your website, your #1 goal is to get them on your ezine list! That way you have permission to contact them again and again, educating them about your helpful services and products that they came to learn more about.

But you can’t just put up a link that says “free newsletter”. No one cares! You need to carefully craft an opt-in box that works like a big net, catching the exact type of “fish” you want as your ideal clients and customers.

Also remember, don’t hide your box at the bottom of your web pages. Right now, most testing shows that the best place for your opt-in box is the upper right corner… loud and proud!

Here are six simple things you should have in your opt-in box that will help you get more signups than ever before.

1) An Attention-Getting HEADLINE

Remember that online readers SKIM copy - they don’t read it word for word. So the headline in your opt-in box may be the ONLY thing they read, which determines whether they sign up or not. So don’t waste this space saying something like “Free Newsletter” or even worse… “Sign up for our mailing list.” Ugh! Instead, tell me the MOST exciting thing your ezine will give me!

Examples:
“Are You Ready to Blast Off Your SALES This Year?”
“FINALLY: Learn How to Keep That Weight Off For Good”
“Insider Secrets to Writing Novels for Big Bucks”

2) A Raving Description of Your Ezine

Work hard at putting together a description of your ezine that gets prospects excited to sign up! Remember they’re tuned into station WIIFM (”What’s In It For ME?”). Tell them what your information is going to DO for them as well as everything they GET. Examples: How-to articles, quick and easy tips, free resources, insider secrets. Aim for your description to be between 15 and 30 words.

3) A Field to Enter Their FIRST NAME.

Getting people’s names along with their e-mails allows you to personalize your ezine for them. For example, if I was on your list, your e-mail would come to me saying, “Dear Ali…” The subject line could even say, “Ali, here’s your free tip”. Why do you want to do this? Studies prove that having the recipient’s name in the subject line of your e-mails can increase your open rates by 60%!

The problem is, many people value their privacy and are hesitant to give you their full name. For this reason, just ask for their FIRST name. It’s been proven that you’ll get MORE names from people if you only ask for the first name. (And their first name is generally all you’ll need anyway.)

4) A Field to Enter Their Primary EMAIL ADDRESS.

Many people have a backup or personal e-mail address that they use just for receiving newsletters and promotions. The problem is they are often from free e-mail services like Yahoo or Hotmail. These services filter e-mail like crazy, and their mailboxes fill up quickly, so there’s a good chance your e-mails won’t even reach these recipients.

The solution is, simply ask for their primary e-mail. It’s amazing, but simply ASKING them to enter their primary e-mail will get you more quality e-mails on your list! (You’ll also get less bounce-backs from undeliverable e-mails. If you get too many of those, it raises a red flag to some spam filter programs.)

5) A BUTTON That Says “Subscribe” or “Sign Me Up Now”

Make it very clear what they should click on to activate their subscription once they type in their name and email. Don’t use something confusing like a link that says “submit form”.

6) Your PRIVACY POLICY, right then and there.

Everyone’s scared to receive more spam these days, so put your prospects at ease. Don’t make them wonder what you’re going to do with their e-mail addresses. State right next to or below your opt-in form what your policy is. Mine is, “We will never sell, rent, trade, or share your e-mail with any other organization.” (Feel free to use that yourself.) DON’T make people click on a link to read your privacy policy - it looks like you have something to hide. In fact, in some U.S. states, it’s now required that you state your privacy policy right at the point of opt-in, so it’s a good idea no matter where you do business.

Want to See a Sample of This in Action?

If you’d like to see many of these components in action, see my pop-under box at www.ezinequeen.com/popup.htm.

And if you’d like MORE step-by-step instructions on how to get more signups at your website (and beyond) and build your list bigger than ever before, see my SPECIAL REPORT: “101 Simple, FREE and Low-Cost Ways to Quickly Build a Massive EMAIL LIST”, which you can learn more about here.

© 2005 Alexandria K. Brown

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